There is nothing in the world of nutrition more confusing than ultra-processed foods. Seemingly every week, there is a new headline about the dangers of ultra-processed foods and their links to things like heart disease, dementia, and death. Today on ParentData, Emily reads her recent article on ultra-processed foods and provides some tips for smart food - and headline - consumption.

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In the run-up to November 5th, it's easy to feel hopeless about the state of our national discourse, and what any single one of us can do to make a difference. That's when we need to look local, where it feels like things can actually change, and where the people who are trying to make the changes feel approachable but, often, no less inspiring. 

Today on ParentData, we're joined by Aly Richards, the CEO of Let's Grow Kids. They're on a mission to ensure affordable access to high quality child care for all Vermont families by 2025 - and they've actually done a lot of it. In June of 2023, the Vermont legislature made history by passing a first-of-its-kind, comprehensive child care bill into law, with overwhelming support from across the political spectrum. This bill supports child care through subsidies in both directions, to families and also to child care providers, and it provides a model for other states to hopefully follow. 

In this conversation, we talk about grassroots mobilization, about clipboards at county fairs, about knocking on doors and how important that is. We talk about the economics of change. We give the cold, hard capitalist case for child care and for child care subsidies, and explain how child care actually pays for itself, if you take a long enough perspective. Get ready to be inspired. 

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Freakonomics economist Professor Steve Levitt joins to weave a thrilling tale about worms in poop, and advocating for your child. Warning: this late-night panic Google is not for the faint of heart.

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Midwives are having a bit of a moment. Of course, that moment is not at all new. For a very, very long time, ? hundreds, possibly thousands, of years ? midwives, or people who were effectively midwives, were delivering all babies. Even when ?doctor? became a more formal job, births were still nearly always attended by midwives. 

At some point, though, especially in the U.S., that changed. Midwifery attendance went way, way down, although it's starting to see an uptick. And it's because the data supports that there are benefits to having a midwife rather than having a doctor at birth, that spontaneous vaginal birth ? birth without a vacuum or forceps ? increases in the care of a midwife. Cesarean sections decrease, and so do episiotomies.

Today on ParentData, we're joined by Ann Ledbetter, a certified nurse-midwife, to help us understand why. We talk about differences and similarities between midwives and OBs and doulas, epidurals, home births, and the difference between health care in the U.S. and elsewhere. And we also take time to talk about the holistic process of birth and how cool it is. 

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Gymnast and Olympic gold-medalist Shawn Johnson describes the panic of international emergencies, advocating for your children in French, and why she hopes her kids never become gymnasts themselves.

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It's our one-year podaversary! We relaunched the new and improved ParentData podcast a year ago this week. We've heard from some incredible, thought-provoking guests, and many voices from our community and beyond. 

But today on ParentData, we're handing Emily the mic. In the spirit of her weekly Wednesday Instagram Q&As, she'll be answering your burning questions about pregnancy, babies, and older kids, in real time...and with a little help.

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Instagram's Caitlin Murray (@BigTimeAdulting) contemplates fear of the unknown, the probability of rare childhood diseases, getting hit by meteors, and the gentle parental art of "...what if you just didn't think about it?".

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If you're a parent who reads the news - and who listens to this podcast - you probably heard a lot about screens this summer. And even now, as kids go back to school, we're hearing a lot about phones. No phones in schools. Put your phone in a Yondr pouch. Hide your phone in your backpack. People are doing TikToks in the bathroom. Take their phones away.

Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt is at the forefront of a lot of these conversations. His book, The Anxious Generation, has really galvanized a lot of these conversations, around kids and phones and schools and their mental health. Today on ParentData, Jon joins us to talk about it all: both what his research has revealed and what's gotten a fair amount of pushback, particularly around the question of whether phones are really the boogeyman for teen mental health that everyone seems to think they are.

Study on social media and mental health (Braghieri, Levy, and Makarin: American Economic Review, Nov. 2022)

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Champion triathaloner Chelsea Sodaro talks baby wipes and the kindest way to say goodbye to your poop.

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This is the second in a two-episode series on the issue of kids and screens and schools. The first episode featured Jessica Grose of the New York Times about her survey of parents about their kids? screen use. The tenor of that episode, overall, was pretty negative on screens. Basically, less is better than more.

Today on ParentData, we welcome Dr. Michael Rich, a pediatrician, child health researcher, and children?s media specialist. Dr. Rich has built his practice and research around helping families with problematic screen use, but also around providing actionable, realistic guidance to parents and families. Put simply: our kids? lives are going to involve screens. Our job is to mentor them and help them develop a healthy relationship with devices. Even if it means watching some truly stupid YouTube videos every now and then.

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Pediatrician-turned-grandma influencer, Dr. Flo Rosen - better known as Ask Bubbie - tackles the super easy issues of vaccine hesitancy, sleep training, and intergenerational harmony.

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When we were growing up, screens came in fixed, predictable contexts: TV, movie theaters, computer labs, Oregon Trail. But kids today use screens all the time, especially at school, where they've become a ubiquitous part of classroom life. We've been hearing a lot lately about how detremental this is to learning. But how bad is it really?

Today on ParentData is the first of two episodes on kids, screens, and schools. In this episode, we're joined by New York Times reporter Jessica Grose, who writes on parenting and recently ran a survey of parents about their kids' screen usage. Her goal with the survey was crowdsourced data to understand, basically, how much are kids actually using screens? And do their parents think it's good for them?

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Serial entrepreneur Myleik explores buttholes, pinworms, and when, as a parent, there's nowhere to go but up.

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Many of us grew up dividing the world into "math kids"... and the rest of us. It can be just as scary when our kids present us with their math homework as it was when we were assigned our own. So how do we get our kids excited about math?

Today on ParentData, we're joined by Shalinee Sharma, who runs an online math platform called Zearn. She is a math zealot ? a person who really, truly believes that all kids can not only succeed in math but love it. We talk about putting those beliefs on the page in her new book "Math Mind: The Simple Path to Loving Math". It?s a guide to how we can make all kids ?math kids.? We talk about why she wrote it, what she hopes people will get from it, and how schools can do math better.

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Actress and singer Mandy Moore contemplates croup, toddler beds, and Bayesian statistics.

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News about weight-loss drugs is hard to miss. A new generation of drugs ? Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, Zepbound ? are on television, on billboards, and in many of our homes. There is little debate about the efficacy of the drugs for weight loss (they work, at least for most people) but lots of discussion about everything else surrounding them. 

But what's been largely missing from this conversation is the answer to the practical questions that many people would like to ask their doctors. Are these drugs right for me? How do the side effects work? How fast would I lose weight? Do I really have to take them forever? What if I?m breastfeeding?

Today on ParentData, we invite back Dr. Gillian Goddard, the endocrinologist and brain behind our Hot Flash newsletter, to dive into the data behind these drugs. Dr. Goddard has been prescribing them for many years, and is both extremely knowledgeable about the science behind them, and extremely thoughtful about who is a good candidate, how to weigh the risks and benefits, and the kinds of questions you should be asking your doctor if you're interested in exploring them.

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The New York Times? Ezra Klein asks how we can trust anything we read about parenting.

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Color War. Underwear on the outside of your clothes. Sailing badges. Friendship bracelets. It is difficult to overstate how attached some people get to their sleepaway camp experiences - they don't explain, they proselytize. And right now, camp is having a moment in our popular culture as we debate what Jon Haidt has deemed the ?phone-based childhood.? Camp is one of the last screen-free zones for kids, and that?s both exciting and, as a parent, a little scary.

Today on ParentData, we're joined by Steve Baskin, a career camp director and incoming head of the American Camping Association, to talk about all things summer camp.  We discuss resilience, the value of free play, the need for phone-free time, whether or not your kids will actually brush their teeth (they will!) and why homesickness might actually be a good thing. 

Special thanks to Falcon Camp in Carrollton, Ohio for lending their voices to this episode.

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The Toast?s Jackie Oshry asks about babies and honey, the efficacy of Baby Mozart, and what you can?t put down the garbage disposal.

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There are many, many wonderful things about parenting boys. There are also challenges that seem disproportionate. Boys often develop language later than girls. More boys than girls are held back in school entry. Girls do better in school at nearly all levels, and are significantly more likely to attend college. Yet this doesn?t get the kind of attention that it might if the genders were reversed. 

Today on ParentData, we're joined by Richard Reeves. Richard is the president of the American Institute for Boys and Men, which aims to both identify and combat the challenges facing boys and men today. We talk about the challenges boys face in school, male executive function, how standardized testing affects boys and girls differently, why those adolescent backpacks are so gross, and how true gender equality requires everyone to thrive.

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CNN anchor Abby Philip asks how to keep her kid in bed all night.

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Reading Rainbow. Reading is FUNdamental! Hooked on Phonics. We grew up steeped in a culture that encouraged reading. And in the past couple of years many U.S. states have embraced legislation about how kids are taught to read in school. The phrase that you may have heard is ?science of reading,? as in ?let?s make sure schools are using reading curricula based on science.? But what does that actually mean? And how would you, as a parent, know if your school was doing it?

Today on ParentData, we're joined by journalist Emily Hanford, the host of the excellent podcast, Sold a Story. The topic of its first season was how reading is taught in American schools, and, for a lot of parents, it opened their eyes to the fact that there isn?t just one way to teach reading and that many schools weren?t doing it right. We talk about what the science says about the right approaches to reading, and then, more practically, about how parents can evaluate their own kids? learning and whether the legislation we?re seeing is doing any good.

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Comedian and NPR mainstay Ophira Eisenberg wrestles with changing her kid?s school, and how to clean slime.

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We?ve been hearing a lot about the teen mental health crisis ? and there is no question that on a number of metrics, teens do seem to be struggling more than they have in the past. But is it really that bad? Is there a chance we?re overreacting to normal teenage feelings?

Today on ParentData, we?re joined by Dr. Mathilde Ross, a psychiatrist at Boston University. Her view is, yes, sometimes we are overreacting. And more to the point, she thinks sometimes parents are the problem. We talk today about what she?s seeing in college kids, how parents can choose to step back, and how to embrace independence, in both your 17-year-old and 7-year-old.

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Have you ever panic-Googled a parenting question late at night? If so, you?re not alone. Most of us turn to that little search bar whenever fear or confusion strikes. On these ParentData mini-episodes, starting today, you?ll hear from some familiar names about the questions keeping them up at night, and how data can help.

First up: actress Claire Holt and the difference between night terrors and nightmares (hopefully not about vampires).

Our kids need a glass of water. Or an extra hug. How do we get them to sleep? So much has been written about this with advice for exhausted parents. But it?s usually in the context of babies. Toddlers and older kids are a whole other ballgame.

Today on ParentData, we?re joined by perhaps our most practical guest ever. Jessica Berk is a toddler and preschooler sleep consultant. Together, we answer your questions, talk about sleep strategies, and explore why sleep is so important not just for kids, but also for parents.

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Book launch alert! We?re so proud to announce that ?The Unexpected: Navigating Pregnancy During and After Complications? is hitting the shelves April 30!

Today on ParentData, Emily?s co-author, OB/GYN Dr. Nate Fox, returns to discuss the process of co-writing between two self-professed people-who-hate-group-projects, as well as how to have conversations with your doctor about pregnancy risks - and even just the whole idea of risk itself.

Pick up a copy of ?The Unexpected? wherever books are sold. And subscribe to ParentData.org for free access to new articles every week on data-driven pregnancy and parenting.

Hiring a doula for your birth is, quite simply, a great idea. They?re non-clinical, cost-effective, and, as many mothers will attest, one of the most valuable parts of the experience - a value that is supported by data. The decision to have one should be pretty easy.

But actually crafting policy that captures that value is hard. Today on ParentData, we?re welcoming New York State Senator Samra Brouk, who is doing just that. Senator Brouk spearheaded an effort in New York to get doula services covered by Medicaid (which they now are, as of January 2024!). She explains her love of data, why doulas are important for maternal health - especially for Black women - and how to convince your older, perhaps non-doula-using colleagues that these issues matter.

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American kids are struggling. And there's a lot of discussion around the reasons why. Is it smartphones? Is it social media? Is it a hyper fixation on feelings and therapy?

Today on ParentData, we?re releasing an episode of Good Inside with Dr. Becky, which Emily joined to discuss the latest book making the rounds in parenting circles, Abigail Shrier?s Bad Therapy. They delve into what parental authority is and what it isn't, how minimization of risk is not a life strategy for kids or adults, and how we can hold two things are true - we can be authorities who also come from a same-team approach with our kids.

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As a parent, it?s extremely easy to get very focused on ?doing it right.? Which means, usually, doing what is considered ?right? in your particular time and cultural context. And sometimes, amid this pressure, we need a little perspective. Human history is long, and what is considered right has changed a lot.

Today on ParentData, we?re joined by author Jennifer Traig, who offers this perspective in spades. Her book ?Act Natural: A Cultural History of Misadventures in Parenting? is a history of parenting (or at least child-rearing) from ancient Rome to Puritan New England to Dr. Spock. We?ve done it a lot of ways and we?re all still here?so we must be doing something right.

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We have all heard it takes a village to raise a child, but the reality is that many of us in the modern world, especially after the pandemic, are asking ?well, where?s my village?! Where?s my community of people who will show up for me in joy, and in grief, and help me introduce my kids to a world that?s bigger than themselves?

Today on ParentData, we welcome Rabbi Sharon Brous, whose book ?The Amen Effect: Ancient Wisdom to Mend our Broken Hearts? is about just this: finding community, finding your people, sometimes in faith, sometimes not, but who always show up for you, in both the good times and the bad.

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In January, ParentData launched a new newsletter ? Hot Flash ? authored by Dr. Gillian Goddard. Hot Flash covers women?s health in the post-reproductive years. Think perimenopause and menopause, but also the late reproductive years, when you?re done having children but still, technically, might be able to do so. This week in Hot Flash, Gillian wrote about birth control at this stage ? how do you think about birth control when you know it?s forever?

Today on ParentData, Gillian joins us to walk through it all: from hormones to IUDs to surgeries. We talk about risks, benefits, trade-offs, and more.

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Invisible labor. It?s the work ? in our households especially ? that has to happen but that no one sees. It?s making the doctor?s appointment, ensuring the Valentine?s cards are purchased, remembering the milk. When we think about equity in household labor, we often find that there are already inequities in the visible work, and they can become insurmountable when the invisible work is added in.

Today on ParentData, Eve Rodsky joins with some solutions to this seemingly endless task list of problems. Her book, ?Fair Play: A Game-Changing Solution for When You Have Too Much to Do (and More Life to Live),? and the movement it?s inspired, aims to rebalance workloads and encourage hard conversations, saving time, sanity, and even marriages along the way.

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Sex in long-term relationships, often after kids ? it?s something many people struggle with. When we did a big ParentData survey on your sex lives, a lot of you expressed unhappiness, stress, and pressure about how much sex was the ?right? amount, whether you were behind (or too far ahead!).

Today on ParentData, Emily Nagoski ? sex researcher and author of ?Come Together: The Science (and Art!) of Creating Lasting Sexual Connections? ?  is here to talk about taking that pressure off and redefining normal. We dive into the anxiety long-term couples face, how much sex everyone else is really having and how little that should matter for you and your partner, and how to evolve sexually? together.

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Exercise. Whether you?re an athlete or just depend on activity for a little dose of sanity, the pregnancy and postpartum periods can knock you sideways and make you feel estranged from your own body.

Today on ParentData, Megan Roche ? researcher, podcaster, and trail runner machine ? joins to discuss how to ease back into activity postpartum, why women?s health is understudied, and the value of carbohydrates. But the conversation goes beyond just sports. It?s also about how to return to the things you love to do after becoming a parent ? and feel a little more like yourself.

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Through coos and cries, babbles and thbbbbts, babies are learning how to communicate from the earliest days of life. Language development is a magical opportunity to watch a child learn to engage with both you and the world. It also feels highly consequential, and for so many parents, it?s an incredibly stressful milestone. Watching your kid learn to talk is at once neat and frustrating and harrowing, all the more so when we realize that even the experts are often scratching their heads about how it all works.

Today on ParentData, Professor Michael Frank joins to explore the question of how children learn to speak. We talk about how language develops, the difference between receptive and expressive language, whether the pandemic had a significant impact, and which language is the hardest for kids to learn (spoiler alert: it?s Danish).

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Earlier this year, Emily interviewed Majka Burhardt, a professional ice climber (seriously) and the author of ?More: Life on the Edge of Adventure and Motherhood,? a raw, gripping book about the first years of parenthood. The book has recently been released as an audiobook, and in this bonus episode of ParentData, we?re thrilled to share some clips and re-run the interview. Majka tackles the uncertainties and fears of parenting with the same clear-eyed intensity and grace as she tackles mountains, and we hope she offers you some inspiration over the holidays.

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Grief can mean a lot of different things, from the loss of a loved one to the loss of a much-wanted pregnancy or marriage. It?s a heavy topic for the holidays, but this can also be a tough time when you?re dealing with loss.

Today on ParentData, writer Marisa Renee Lee gets into the heart of grief - which, from a data perspective, will affect approximately 100% of us - in her book "Grief Is Love." She discusses the need for parents to give, and to take, while weathering the waves of loss, and love.

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Labor induction did not used to be the norm, but it increasingly is. A big reason for this change is something called the ARRIVE trial, which was designed to test whether routine induction would increase the risk of cesarean section - which, according to the results, it did not. In the wake of the trial, with that concern limited, many more doctors began recommending inductions as routine. (This refers to inductions that are not done by medical necessity; in many cases, it is necessary to induce, sometimes earlier than 39 weeks, to protect the health of the mother or baby.) But this doesn?t work for everyone: some people would rather not be induced, and some researchers have argued that the results from ARRIVE actually do not hold up in the real world.

Today on ParentData, Dr. Nathan Fox, an OB/GYN and co-author of Emily's upcoming book, The Unexpected: Navigating Pregnancy During and After Complications joins to discuss the ARRIVE trial, its clinical aftershocks, and the risks and benefits of letting nature take its course... or grabbing the steering wheel.

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Self-care is everywhere. Bubble baths, massages, Instagram encouraging you to ?take time for yourself.? Get up early to have coffee and meditate, or take a forest walk. It can get to the point where self-care itself is yet another thing to check off the to-do list. Send emails. Make lunches. Clean Cheerios off floor. Take forest walk.

Today on ParentData, psychiatrist Dr. Pooja Lakshmin wants to push back on this performative, box-checking, crystals-and-baths form of self-care. Her book Real Self-Care: A Transformative Program for Redefining Wellness is about what it actually takes to create wellness for ourselves. She talks about setting boundaries, tuning out the critics, and what true self-care can mean to each of us.

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Earlier this year, Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy issued a new advisory about the effects of social media on the mental health of young people. These advisories are rare; we're used to seeing them on the sides of cigarette packs, where the negative health risks are indisputable. But social media and smartphones are more complicated. Today on ParentData, Dr. Murthy discusses the individual and systemic issues that led him to issue the advisory, and what he hopes, as both the nation's doctor and his kids? father, it will accomplish.

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It?s time to make things awkward! Our journey through puberty is mercifully over, but we?ve still got to help our kids through it? and it may not be what we remember. Pediatrician Dr. Cara Natterson and journalist Vanessa Kroll Bennett, authors of ?This is So Awkward: Modern Puberty Explained,? are here to dive headfirst into the surprising complexities of the endocrine system and how to stay close to our kids as they navigate today?s journey of adolescence.

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Even under the best of circumstances, the decision to end a marriage is often painful and always complicated - and even more so when kids are involved. Today on ParentData, writer and social worker Miranda Featherstone delves into the endless choices that accompany divorce, including making the initial decision, what it means to share your kids, what (and how much) to tell them, and other ways of thinking about the emotional and logistical aftershocks of making the right choice for yourself.

Please look into support from the Domestic Violence Support Hotline, if it applies to your situation.

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You probably remember peanut butter being everywhere when you were a kid: commercials, birthday parties, packed in your school lunchbox. Now peanuts are notable for their absence. What accounts for such a dramatic change in such a short amount of time? When did something so commonplace become so high-risk? Dr. Gideon Lack led the study that aimed to understand what happened. Today on ParentData, he explains the precipitous rise in peanut allergies over the last twenty years, our own unfortunate role in the rise of allergies, and the best ways to safely introduce allergens to your babies.

Read Dr. Lack?s randomized LEAP trial paper in the NEJM and the American Academy of Pediatrics? subsequent revised recommendations.

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Kids today face an unprecedented pressure to succeed, and it's pushing their mental health, and their families, to a breaking point. Today on ParentData, journalist Jennifer Breheny Wallace explains her research in her bestselling book, "Never Enough," how we got here, how these problems exist across both class and culture, and how we can combat this pressure by simply allowing our kids to matter as much as we already know they do.

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Becoming a parent is transformative. It is also terrifying. From conception and pregnancy onwards, you?re handed a new set of rules to follow with little explanation of the reasons or risks. For each decision, you want to do the ?right? thing ? but how, with conflicting advice from all directions? For the past decade, Emily Oster has been a guide through the biggest decisions and most challenging moments of pregnancy and parenthood by translating the latest scientific research. ParentData brings Emily and other experts together to debunk myths with data and navigate understudied areas of pregnancy and parenting, from the impact of social media on teens to navigating a complicated birth. Each conversation brings us closer to Emily?s mission: to create the most data-literate and informed generation of parents.

I?m thrilled to share the audio from an event we held earlier this month to mark the 10-year anniversary of my first book, Expecting Better. It was hosted by Dr. Sara Readon (also known as The Vagina Whisperer) and we were joined by Amy Schumer, who helped put the book on the map. We also announced my new book, The Unexpected, which is coming out next spring!

ParentData relaunched in September 2023. Please enjoy this episode of the earlier version of the podcast from our archives. You can read transcripts and listen to all of our episodes at parentdata.org/podcast.

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I spoke with Dr. Anupam Jena, known as Bapu, who hosts the podcast Freakonomics, MD, about his new book, Random Acts of Medicine, written jointly with Dr. Christopher Worsham. The book is out this week, and after you listen here, I highly recommend you pick it up.

ParentData relaunched in September 2023. Please enjoy this episode of the earlier version of the podcast from our archives. You can read transcripts and listen to all of our episodes at parentdata.org/podcast.

Want more on data, pregnancy, and parenting? Subscribe to the ParentData newsletter for free at parentdata.org.

Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman is a PhD student at Harvard in economics and public policy. Last year, she edited The Black Agenda: Bold Solutions for a Broken System, which features Black scholars and experts across economics, education, health, climate, criminal justice, and technology. This week, the book is out in paperback. In honor of this, she and I connected to chat about two of the chapters ? on education for Black girls and representation in children?s books.

ParentData relaunched in September 2023. Please enjoy this episode of the earlier version of the podcast from our archives. You can read transcripts and listen to all of our episodes at parentdata.org/podcast.

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When I do my weekly Q&A on Instagram (@profemilyoster), I get a lot of questions about running. Rather than interrupt the parenting content, we thought we?d collect those separately and put them in podcast form. And then I convinced Laura Green to ask the questions. If you do not follow Laura on Instagram, she puts out very funny running comedy; it is seriously the best. So: if you like running and parenting and discussions of the pelvic floor, please give this one a listen.

ParentData relaunched in September 2023. Please enjoy this episode of the earlier version of the podcast from our archives. You can read transcripts and listen to all of our episodes at parentdata.org/podcast.

Want more on data, pregnancy, and parenting? Subscribe to the ParentData newsletter for free at parentdata.org.